Setup Details

Free Cloud Desktop ver 3.13 Setup Instructions

If this is your first time setting up your desktop, we recommend being a little patient and precise. This one-time setup takes around 5 minutes with time to check your emails, make a phone call and maybe get a coffee.

Create the Rules below (you can add rules or delete them later but RDP is the only one we recommend for typical usage).

Enter a Security Group Name and Group Description of “Desktop Anywhere Free Cloud Desktop version 3.1”

From the “Type” drop-down box scroll down and select RDPandchange the source to Anywhere (or the custom IP if you are limiting to such as recommended by AWS and that works for your purpose).

Click the “Review and Launch” button in the lower right-hand corner

Click Continue if you get a warning about Port 22

Review the settings making any corrections necessary.

Click the Launch Button

Select the Drop Down next to Choose an Existing Key Pair and select “Proceed without a key pair”, andtick the checkbox next to “I acknowledge…” and lastlyclick the “Launch Instances” Button

The Launch Status Window will display notifying you that “Your instances are now launching”

Click on the link next to “The following instances have been initiated: i-9999999” (the 9s will be replaced by an alphanumeric unique identifier for your instance).

We strongly recommend that you Create Billing Alerts under Get Notified of Estimated Charges and following the instructions on the wizard. Along with checking your My Account tab until you are sure your account is setup for Free Tier properly, the billing alert will help you ensure that you are not being charged to run your desktop as there are limits to the Free Tier Amazon allows. (If you use the AWS Free Tier, you can set a billing alert to notify you if you exceed the free tier by setting a threshold of $0.00.)

Accessing Your Desktop for the First Time:

There are a number of ways to be able to access your Free Cloud Desktop from a variety of devices. The easiest and most common method is Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and we will be using RDP in this example. Refer to the Desktop Access Section if you have issues, prefer a different method or need to install an RDP App such as for an Android or Apple Device.

Now, a few more items to secure and personalize your Free Cloud Desktop! Now let’s personalize your desktop and change your password.

Setup Your Desktop:

Apply Available Updates –

Using a Terminal Session from the Desktop

Launch a Terminal Session from the Desktop

From the Command Line issue the following commands (Note: The Command Line Commands are cASE sENSITIVE)

Provide your password, y (for yes) and other options as prompted

sudo apt-get update (wait for it to finish and return a command prompt)

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Note: You will want to do the above updates/upgrades periodically to keep up to date or you can use System/Software updater as well.

Let the update complete and validate update completed successfully

sudo update-manager (this updates the Mate Desktop)

Follow prompts to install updates as directed

When the installation is finished you can type:

sudo reboot

This will close your desktop – Now, before logging back in and anything else…

Restart the instance from the AWS Console (this is good to do occasionally or if you have issues)::

Select your Instance on the AWS Instances panel

Right Mouse Click, then select Instance State/Reboot Then click the button “Yes, Reboot” to restart the instance from the AWS side of things.

Wait about a minute then you should be able to log back in to your Cloud Desktop via RDP.

Once logged in to your desktop again:

Change Your Password!

This is particularly important!

Your Free Cloud Desktop has an initial password that was assigned as the same for everyone that signed up. Let’s change that right now. Be careful to make a note of your password as there is no way to recover it. To change your Password:

Make sure you are logged into Your Free Cloud Desktop via RDP again as you did above

On the top Menu select System/Preferences/Personal/About Me

Click Change Password

Enter the password you were given in the email in the field next to Current password and then click Authenticate

Now, enter a Strong New Password in the New password and Confirm password fields, then click Change password

NOTE: You cannot recover your password. Make sure you don’t lose or forget it. Don’t worry though, you can always just terminate an instance and spin up a new one.

Next time, log in using your new password. You should be all set to begin exploring your new Linux Free Cloud Desktop!

Now, this is a very powerful Operating System and Architecture. We suggest you take your time and extend your use thoughtfully. Make sure that you store/backup all data in case you need it. You can always terminate an instance and spin up another instance if you have issues, but all user data and configuration are your responsibility alone.